Earlier this week I had the experience of putting my first FM HD signal on the air. At -20dbc, our ERP for the HD signal is 95W. The issue I am having is audio levels. The main analog signal sounds significantly louder than the HD1, and the HD2 is much lower than the HD1. We are using all BE gear, FXi250 exciter, FSi10 exporter, and a brand new IDi40 importer. The manuals are almost no help. Input audio levels all look good, and I have been unable to find output level controls in any of the software. We were under the gun to get this signal on the air, and now need to go back and clean it up. Any thoughts or suggestions would be helpful. I have tried BE tech support, but they appear to be running with a skeleton crew now, and finding someone knowledgeable and getting a return call is very difficult.

I ran into a similar issue with Nautel equipment on an AM IBOC installation and it ended up being a "digital gain" setting I had missed. I have not used the BE gear but looking through the FSi-10 manual (page 48) I came across "Audio Level Control" which appears to be the same thing.

I found that parameter in the software, but when I experimented with it, I could not perceive a level change in the HD1 signal, I did not check to see if it had an effect on the HD2 signal. If I remember correctly, the range for this field is -10 to +10, and I tried it at several settings, including both extremes, and could not tell any change in level relative to the analog signal.

One thing I have not been able to find is any mention of an output level field in either the FSi10 or the IDi40. Input levels look good to both boxes. Fighting the learning curve on this issue for sure.

Joe Friday wrote:I found that parameter in the software, but when I experimented with it, I could not perceive a level change in the HD1 signal, I did not check to see if it had an effect on the HD2 signal. If I remember correctly, the range for this field is -10 to +10, and I tried it at several settings, including both extremes, and could not tell any change in level relative to the analog signal.

One thing I have not been able to find is any mention of an output level field in either the FSi10 or the IDi40. Input levels look good to both boxes. Fighting the learning curve on this issue for sure.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Kevin

If you're using a BE Importer, you likely have Linear Acoustics audio processing software installed for your HD2. Use it and the SPS-2 mixer settings to adjust that volume.